Sweet sweet Friday: Ginger crunch

It has been quite a week at our house, with very little going on in the kitchen but too much happening out of it. I made this last night and have been self-medicating with it ever since.

Spicy Ginger Crunch
This is a pimped-up version of a Kiwi classic, with an extra-thick layer of icing and nuggets of crystallised ginger in the base. Oh, and an extra-secret spicy kick that the esteemed members of the Country Women’s Institute would never have thought of. Leave it out if you’re a nervous Nellie…

Preheat the oven to 180C. Line a slice tin with baking paper.
Sift the flour, baking powder, spices and sugar into a large bowl – or a food processor, or the bowl of a freestanding mixer. Add the butter and rub/process/beat until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the crystallised ginger and press into the prepared tin. Bake for 20 minutes, until golden brown.
For the icing, melt the butter and golden syrup together, then add the icing sugar and spices. Cook, stirring constantly, for about one minute, beating with a wooden spoon until smooth. Pour over the hot base and leave to set. Cut into bars and store in an airtight container.

19 Comments

I've never heard of this kiwi classic before, but why not? It looks delicious – just the sort of ting for self madicating, or nibbling with a cup of tea, or coffee, or just on its own! I've bookmarked it for when I am back from hols!

Hope the self-medicating is doing what you need it to. I love the addition of five-spice powder, very exciting. I'm so glad my tastebuds have got to the stage where I now love ginger, as opposed to hating it as I did until about five years ago…

Can't wait to try this version – I recently started a batch of ginger crunch only to find there was no ground ginger in the house – when you want Ginger Crunch nothing else will do, so I soldiered on with a combo of chopped crystallised ginger and grated fresh ginger: Yum.